What is Sound Healing?

Sound healing is part of my ever-expanding self-care toolkit. Exploring beyond the obvious space of physical and emotional connection is where sound has profound influence.

Let’s crack this open with questions: Do you love music? Does it change your thinking? Does it make you move? Does it make you sing along? Does it help you get through anything in particular?

Without music, I would be sad. Very sad. I’m an indoor cycling instructor! Music is my guide by bike with proof that sound has an incredible power to inspire different pairs of legs to move at the same time. And when you take a class, you know that your heart and spirit have something to do with an undeniable connection to energy.

This could be your Zumba, body pump, ballet, or headbanger 101. Music provides a tale as old as time that brings humans together for good reason.

On a deeper level, specific decibels strike us to the core by making us FEEL something. Something BIG.

Time to sprinkle a little science into this practice to determine if it’s really as awesome as it sounds.

Tibetan Singing Bowls

This observational study provides striking insight into the practice of sound healing: “Spiritual well-being improvement was highly correlated with improvement in tension and depression post-treatment, particularly for certain age groups. Not only may spirituality potentially assist in improved mental health for those with persistent mental disorders, but also for individuals seeing a mental health provider and those in the general population. Thus, this combination of improved spiritual well-being and improved mood may be important for overall well-being.”

How could sound bowls have the potential to increase feelings of inner peace? It has to be magical sorcery! Science, who?

Actually, it’s V I B R A T I O N.

Singing bowls, gongs, bells, cymbals, and didgeridoos, are typically used in sound ceremonies. Metal bowls in a range of sizes provide sound when tapped, rubbed, struck by a mallet, or when the mallet circles the rim.

A sequence of sounds are repeated in a therapeutic session similar to meditation. Deep breathing and absorbing different vibrations inspire a healing environment within. On an individual level, our cells just know what to do. Certainly, further scientific explanation exists into the deep stuff that our cells know. Personally, I’d rather not ‘dietitian this up’ and overthink it.

When something feels right, WE feel right. Positive. Inspired. Aligned. The experience of sound healing is one that must be felt just as importantly (perhaps, more importantly) than controlled for scientific data and analysis.

Okay, friend. Take a second to lean back in your chair. Inhale with a deep breath through your nose and imagine the sense of healing through a beautiful series of vibrations in a quiet space where your thoughts are not allowed to intrude.

Now, doesn’t that simply sound divine?

More science-based info on sound and music therapy —> HERE